COUPLE RIDE SWELL OF PADDLEBOARD POPULARITY

Couple get in on ground floor as retailers in rapidly growing water sport

Jim and Ramona Rajner had been teaching paddleboard lessons on Oceanside Harbor for about six months, and the seasonal business was waning when they realized there might be another entrepreneurial opportunity in the burgeoning sport.

The co-owners of The What’SUP Surf Co. were giving lessons to first-timers ranging in age from 5 to 75, most of whom fell in love with stand-up paddling, or SUP, right away. Anyone can do it, Ramona explained, and it’s great for both relaxation and changing up the fitness routine.

Locals, who make up about half of What’SUP’s clients, wanted to know where they could get their own boards, and Jim found himself explaining to out-of-towners that they could paddle on any lake, pond or river. He would then help his customers find retailers who could help them.

“I was thinking, ‘We’re sending all of our customers to other people. Why are we doing that? Why don’t we sell boards?’ ”

Now Jim is the retailer. He and Ramona opened Jimmy Romo’s SUP Surf Shop this month and stocked it with bamboo boards made by Creed SUP, a year-old company based in Chula Vista.

Why go retail

The Rajners say they’re getting in on the ground floor of a movement that is only beginning. Modern-day stand-up paddling was virtually unknown five years ago, Ramona said, and now it’s on television commercials for everything from vacation spots to cars.

The Surf Industry Manufacturers Association didn’t track stand-up paddleboard sales until 2010, and already they accounted for $15.6 million, or 22 percent, of the $71 million in total surfboard sales in 2012, according to the association’s annual retail study.

SUP boards had a median retail price of $1,000 last year, and the average number sold per retailer was 15.

The Rajners don’t know how many boards they can expect to sell, but they did not take any loans to set up shop, so they feel they can keep things running indefinitely until they break even and become profitable.

Business experience

The Rajners are newcomers to the sport. They first tried paddleboarding three years ago and only began teaching in spring 2012, after they moved to Ocean-side from Colorado.

Jim, who owned a construction business, said he had read about paddleboarding and wanted to give it a try.

In March 2010, the couple spotted a stand-up paddleboard for $735 at a Costco store in Denver. They bought it, and even though the ice had barely melted off the lake near their house, Jim tried it.

“That was it,” he said. “In a nutshell, I was hooked.”

Last year, Jim, now 53 and Ramona, now 47, decided to move to Oceanside. He got a part-time job selling cars, and Ramona found a job at a school.

Meanwhile, Jim also started paddling around Ocean-side Harbor daily. The more he paddled, the more questions he got from onlookers. He met what he felt was an obvious need by launching the What’SUP Surf to give lessons in the harbor.

Picking boards

When they decided to expand into sales, Jim didn’t want to pay for their inventory out of pocket. He went to several surf shops in hopes of negotiating another deal: He would send his customers to them in exchange for some lesson equipment and a percentage of the board sales from his customers.